Catalogue living. The past decade has seen a deluge of mail-order companies spring up, each offering an array of curated, lifestyle-y products, brought together and artfully photographed in such a way as to form the ideal image of a well-lived life, full of objects and acquisitions that appear to speak of experience and travel. Pedlars is particularly adept at this, often bringing together marked-up ‘vintage’ items with new goods. The extent to which we want our experiences manifested in our purchases is highlighted by Made.com (blog), which ‘crowdsources‘ popular designs then deals directly with the (mostly) Chinese manufacturers to get them constructed (news story), appearing to steer the business of commissioning and curating back onto the consumer. Our ‘choices’ suddenly appear to have more depth and resonance than before.

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A nice little scam: Miles for Nothing: How the Government Helped Frequent Fliers Make a Mint. Apart from earning some individuals ‘enough miles to put him over two million total at AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, giving him lifetime platinum – elite status – early availability of upgrades for life and other perks on American and its partners around the world’, coinage is also environmentally sound: ‘Dollar coins save the country money because they can last 30 years or more and can be recycled, the Mint says. A paper dollar in circulation lasts only about 21 months, says the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.’